Will dry firing my Victory damage it?
Dry firing my Victory
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keithherrington
Member
Probably
I've owned and shot High Standard 22s for decades and quite often the firing pin will ding the breech face. Always use an empty case or a chamber plug to make sure this does not happen. If you need some plugs I have a bunch left over from my bullseye days.
Keith
I've owned and shot High Standard 22s for decades and quite often the firing pin will ding the breech face. Always use an empty case or a chamber plug to make sure this does not happen. If you need some plugs I have a bunch left over from my bullseye days.
Keith
wwit
Member
Seeing that the SW22 is not designed for dry firing as with most other rimfire guns, I would say that its not a matter of if it will break but when will it break the firing pin?
Aluminum snap caps are cheap. Used brass casings are even cheaper. Don't bother with plastic caps as they aren't made to be dry fired, but used to hand cycle. Plastic caps can/will shatter into a zillion pieces of shrapnel that stays inside the receiver. I know this from hands on experience.
Aluminum snap caps are cheap. Used brass casings are even cheaper. Don't bother with plastic caps as they aren't made to be dry fired, but used to hand cycle. Plastic caps can/will shatter into a zillion pieces of shrapnel that stays inside the receiver. I know this from hands on experience.
bob finger
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Yellow dry wall anchors are a very inexpensive way to keep from dry firing. They feed from the magazine too if you wish to do so.
bob
bob
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I use those yellow drywall anchors as snapcaps, and the teal colored A-Zoom dummy rounds for function testing (but NOT dry firing). Actual products labeled as snapcaps, like the Pachmayr ones, don't last long and shatter into a zillion pieces. Pretty worthless actually. Drywall anchors are MUCH better (and a helluva lot cheaper too!) The A-Zooms will be damaged by dry firing as well, but at least they don't shatter like the Pachmayrs. A-Zoom says they're not supposed to be used for dry firing, and you shouldn't use them for that.
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With very few exceptions, just about any rimfire firearm will be damaged by enough dry-firing. I recall one (the Browning Medalist .22 semiauto target pistol) had a setting for dry-firing that would not damage the firing pin or chamber. Wall anchors or empties are a cheap investment.
2ffat
Member
The manual even states not to dry fire it.
OLDSTER
Member
I agree with Murpydog. Even, as in the case of the Ruger MKIII and MKIV, where the manual says it is OK to dry fire; NO rimfire firearm should be dry fired without snap caps. If you do a Google search, there are lots of photos showing damage, regardless of manufacture, due to dry firing
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Pisgah
Member
WHAT???!! There's a MANUAL???!! And someone actually READS IT???!!!
I thought you were just supposed to throw that away and then ask questions of anonymous "experts" on gun forums!
BigDog48
US Veteran
hahahaha....I wish we had a laughing my a-- off smiley face! If more people would wade through the manual (including the many, many pages on firearm safety) there'd be a lot fewer problems and questions on the forum. There's also LMGTFY (Let Me Google That For You) emoji's that would help...or use of the search field at the top of the forum.
But if people did any of those things, the forum would be much more boring
Joe Hohmann
Member
Rather than playing with your gun (dry firing), invest $60. in a air pistol. That will teach you trigger control, and you will have a target with holes in it to show how well you are doing.
For some things, yes, for others, no.
For example, every firearm manual states that if you place a reloaded cartridge within 15 feet of their firearm, terrible things will happen, all hell will break loose, many people will die, your gun will be spontaneously destroyed, etc. And if you are ballsy enough to add an after market trigger, your gun is no longer safe, and kiss the warranty on the rest of the parts of the gun goodbye.
So manuals can contain both good and bad information. Much of the bad information was added by lawyers in an attempt to protect the manufacturer.
When it comes to dry firing advice from the manufacturer, I admit that most of that advice appears truthful and good. However, I would not put it past some manufactures to say, "Go ahead and dry fire it (because we know you'll have to buy more stuff from us to fix it later!)" Or, perhaps they just don't care.
With rimfire cartridges, the firing pin comes forward and hits the rim of the cartridge (duh!) If there is no cartridge or snapcap there, then the firing pin hits the breech face (unless there is a cutout in the breech face for the firing pin to harmlessly enter). Use your own brain - is metal smacking on metal a good idea? Where large surface areas are involved, it may not be a problem. But the tip of a firing pin is not a large surface area.
BigDog48
US Veteran
No offense, but reading the manual would have answered the "can I dry fire" question. In spite of a lot of the "lawyer language", reading the manual is good place to start, especially with a pistol type you're not familiar with. The OP obviously wasn't familiar with rim fire pistols.
I didn't say not to read the manual. It was stated previously that reading the manual would cut down on a lot of questions on the forums. I agreed with that, and then went on with a few examples where reading the manual would NOT result in fewer questions. Specifically, regarding reloads and 3rd party parts. If one only read the manual, and didn't ask questions, there would be no such thing as reloading or 3rd party after market parts.
That was my point. Read the manual. But ask questions too.
And look what asking questions got for the O.P in this thread. Not just the answer "The manual says you shouldn't dry fire it." But additional information on how to use drywall anchors, snapcaps, dummy rounds, etc. to safely dry fire and prove in the action. And others prior experience with the shattering Pachmayr snapcaps so the O.P. doesn't waste his money on them. None of that information would have made it to the O.P if someone here had bluntly said "RTFM" and locked the thread. Things that seem oh so routine for those of us who have been shooting for decades, like drywall anchors, are not so obvious for newer shooters.
